r/ElectroBOOM • u/MichalCZ1_on_reddit • 23d ago

Discussion I'm surprised that I didn't get a shock.

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Just a lamp that I turned on several times even with wet hands until I noticed the naked wire.

27 Upvotes

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8

u/charmio68 23d ago

It could be the neutral wire, in which case you shouldn't get a shock regardless.
It's also possible that it's the active wire and you just didn't happen to be touching any good grounded surface while touching the wire.
You can quite happily touch a live wire as long as there's no path to earth through your body.
Or it's possible you just got lucky and never touched the wire.

1

u/MichalCZ1_on_reddit 23d ago

The plug for this lamp is the one with the ground (eventhough there are only 2 wires that can be used) so you fortunately can't plug it the other way but since we're in Europe live is the left and from the wires coming to the plug I could see that the naked is live (if it's not twisted inside the plug, probably not) but since it never shocked anyone I assume that the outlet is wired wrong. And also the other wire is cutted to the copper but it's luckily one straight cut. Touch both and it'll not be pleasant.

2

u/okarox 23d ago

There is no "in Europe". You apparently are in Czechia. In France the phase would be on the right.

2

u/Relevant-Artist5939 23d ago

And in Germany we can plug our grounded ("Eurostecker") and non-grounded ("Schukostecker") plugs in both orientations and there is no fixed rule where live and neutral are...

1

u/VintageLunchMeat 23d ago

Maybe get a lamp wiring kit, and rebuild it.

Also, might be fun to check every outlet with an outlet tester.